Michael Wearing (12 March 1939[1] – 5 May 2017[2]) was a British television producer, who spent much of his career working on drama productions for the BBC.
His initial career was in the theatre, where he worked as a director, before in 1976 he joined the BBC's English Regions Drama Department as a Script Editor under producer David Rose.
Written by Alan Bleasdale, despite languishing on the shelf for two years waiting for a broadcast slot before being shown in 1980, the play was a great success and led to Bleasdale writing and Wearing producing Boys from the Blackstuff (1982), a sequel series showing what happened to the characters involved after the events of the play.
This was highly acclaimed and award-winning, and led to Wearing being called down to work at the central BBC drama department in London.
Written by playwright Peter Flannery, Our Friends in the North was a production Wearing had wanted to bring to the screens since the early 1980s, but due to various difficulties with budgets, potential libel and BBC executives[clarification needed], he had never been able to.